And I even agree that it may be best that it be reserved for men, to honor the gender of Christ.
Do you believe that it would be a dishonor (or less of an honor) for a woman to "to sacramentally enact the stages and passages of Christ's redemptive life"? I simply don't understand what being male or female in itself has to do with redemption.
I'm willing to admit that being born into one gender or another tends to give one certain aptitudes and certain, um, "dis-aptitudes," but it has been noted that we can often observe more variance between members of one gender than we find between the averages of male and female. That is, the "bell curves" overlap so much that aptitudes vary more on a purely human scale than they do by gender.
So, to conclude that men are better suited to handle the sacraments, simply because Jesus was a man, seems to imply that there is some "essence" possessed by males that females either lack or are deficient in.
Let me take a second tack on this. Paul noted that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." While this may or may not reflect a certain dualistic disdain for flesh, I find Paul's words to be incompatible with the suggestion that gender makes any difference with regard to sacrament, redemption, or grace.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: I don't want to start another row within the fold, but...
Date: 2004-04-10 06:50 am (UTC)Do you believe that it would be a dishonor (or less of an honor) for a woman to "to sacramentally enact the stages and passages of Christ's redemptive life"? I simply don't understand what being male or female in itself has to do with redemption.
I'm willing to admit that being born into one gender or another tends to give one certain aptitudes and certain, um, "dis-aptitudes," but it has been noted that we can often observe more variance between members of one gender than we find between the averages of male and female. That is, the "bell curves" overlap so much that aptitudes vary more on a purely human scale than they do by gender.
So, to conclude that men are better suited to handle the sacraments, simply because Jesus was a man, seems to imply that there is some "essence" possessed by males that females either lack or are deficient in.
Let me take a second tack on this. Paul noted that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." While this may or may not reflect a certain dualistic disdain for flesh, I find Paul's words to be incompatible with the suggestion that gender makes any difference with regard to sacrament, redemption, or grace.